NEW YORK - While cities around the world hosted upbeat gay pride parades in recent weeks, human-rights activists kept watch on a contrasting set of developments: gays beaten by demonstrators in Moscow, convicted on sodomy charges in Cameroon, targeted by sweeping anti-gay legislation in Nigeria.

"It shows there are still dangers in just being gay  and dangers in speaking out," said Paula Ettelbrick, executive director of the New York-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

"You need people willing to stand up and claim their space, even against tremendous odds  country by country, city by city."

Ettelbrick's commission, along with other human rights groups and some members of Congress, are intensifying their efforts to monitor and protest abuses and oppression of gays and lesbians overseas. Results have been mixed.

Regions of concern include Africa, where many politicians engage in anti-gay rhetoric; Islamic countries where gay sex is illegal and sometimes punishable by death; and certain Eastern European countries where gay pride marches have been banned or targeted by harassment and violence.

"In a lot of countries, you've got gays and lesbians enjoying new visibility, but at the same time the opposition forces become more angry," said Scott Long of Human Rights Watch. "People need to be aware of the possible backlash."

Among the recent incidents:

_In Moscow, gay activists were pummeled by right-wing protesters and detained by police on May 27 when they tried to gather after the city banned a gay pride parade. Mayor Yuri Luzhkov says he will ban such parades as long as he holds office.

More than 30 members of Congress signed a letter asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to condemn the anti-gay violence.

_In Cameroon, where gay sex is punishable by up to five years in prison, seven men were jailed more than a year before being convicted three weeks ago on sodomy charges. Human rights groups say the men were abused in prison and convicted despite lack of evidence.

Ettelbrick's organization also says many youths have been expelled from schools in Cameroon on suspicion of homosexual behavior. Closeted gays have been targeted by the West African country's tabloid newspapers, which claim to have "outed" several dozen prominent people.

_Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has proposed a bill that would criminalize same-sex relationships  imposing prison terms for not only for gays or lesbians who have sex, but also for organizers of gay rights groups and participants in same-sex marriage ceremonies.

"In Africa, politicians trying to shore themselves up see homophobia as a useful thing to exploit," Long said.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., one of three openly gay members of Congress, wrote to Obasanjo in May, warning he might reconsider his support for U.S. aid to Nigeria unless the legislation was withdrawn.

_Frank and five other members of Congress also protested the convictions and imprisonment of 11 men arrested in November at what police in the United Arab Emirates called a mass gay wedding. Initially, authorities said the men would be tested for male hormone levels and might face hormone injections, though these procedures did not occur.

_In Jamaica, which outlaws gay sex, gays are frequent targets of attacks and harassment. The Caribbean island's best-known gay activist was murdered in 2004 by an assailant wielding an ice pick; a gay man who counseled people with AIDS was shot dead last year.

_Iran is a constant concern to activists because of recurring reports of men being executed for gay sex. A pending Human Rights Watch investigation has verified that such executions occur, Long said, though it is difficult to gauge how frequently.

"The minimum you'll face is torture in jail or court-ordered floggings," he said of gays arrested in Iran.

U.S. activists were pleased this year when the State Department's annual worldwide human rights report devoted more attention than usual to problems gays face. Even Frank, who disagrees with most Bush administration policies on gay issues, took note.

Eastern Europe has become one of the most intriguing gay rights battlegrounds, as activists in several countries confront conservative political and religious leaders who disdain Western Europe's gay-friendly policies.

In Poland, about 3,000 people marched peacefully three weeks ago in Warsaw's annual gay rights march, an event marked in previous years by violence and official bans. Former Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski, now Poland's president, refused to grant permits for the parade in 2004 and 2005, saying such events threatened Polish society.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution in mid-June asserting that homophobia is on the rise in Poland.

Latvian lawmakers have approved a constitutional ban on marriage for same-sex couples and refused to outlaw workplace discrimination against gays, despite concerns that European Union policies require such a law. Last year, hundreds of anti-gay demonstrators jeered and hurled debris at marchers in Latvia's first gay pride parade.

Allan Carlson, a conservative American scholar organizing a World Congress of Families in Warsaw next year, says Polish and Latvian authorities should discourage anti-gay violence, but he supports their efforts to resist the gay-rights and gay-marriage movements sweeping Western Europe.

"The pressure on these countries will be enormous," he said. "They see the promotion of gay culture as one more ideological threat to their values."

I believe his point was simply that they declare it is healthy, and quite simply, it is not.

If you read his statement carefully, it is not a crtiticism of some positive assertion, but rather a criticism of the absence of such an assertion, such as the alleged unhealthiness of whatever it is we're talking about. By the way, medical professionals disagree with that, but I'm sure they're being bribed by some sinister group... whatever.

7
posted on 07/01/2006 5:29:31 PM PDT
by AntiGovernment
(A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.)

You ignore the fact that sodomy is a good way to spread disease. We're not just talking about an individualism that emphasizes living as one sees fit; we're talking about actions that benefit or do not benefit the larger community. Community sentiment is basically absent in radical individualism. It's basically a very selfish mentality. I'm guessing that it has something to do with the fact that most of us no longer live in tight-knit communities or villages and the like.

Who cares if it's unhealthty for them? Everyone is free to live his life as he chooses, and he must bear the (possible) consequences of this action.

For starters society bears the consequences -I would guess most people do not like the idea of a potentially tainted blood supply and consider such a safety concern, do not like to publicly fund the delusion and propaganda campaign comprising homosexual safe sex training (aka "AIDS" education <---MEGA BARF!), do not like funding further development of such novelties as a "better" rectal microbicide, and the list goes on and on and on...

There are good reasons why the Libertarian party is less relevant than even the dummicrat party -delusion is not one of them. If you support "homosexual sex freedom" THEN say so; however, attempting to compare it to "normal" sex is simply absurd and delusional...

Homosexual Behavior FuelsAIDS and STD Epidemic

December, 2003 — The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced on November 26, 2003, that AIDS infections increased in 29 states in 2002 among Blacks, Latinos, and Homosexual and Bisexual men. The overall rate of increase was 5.1% over a four-year period between 1999-2002. Fifty-five percent of these infections are among Blacks; there was a 26% increase among Latinos; and a 17% increase among homosexuals and bisexuals. There was a 7% increase in AIDS infections among non-homosexuals. These CDC statistics are published in the November 28 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

Dr. Diggs notes that homosexual sodomy is an efficient transmitter of a whole range of STD’s including AIDS. He also points out that human physiology makes it clear that anal intercourse itself is an unhealthy practice that damages the body and can lead to serious health consequences—including anal cancer. “Unhealthy sexual behaviors occur among both heterosexuals and homosexuals. Yet the medical and social science evidence indicate that homosexual behavior is uniformly unhealthy,” observes Diggs.

The sexual activities engaged in by homosexuals inevitably lead to a whole range of viral and bacterial infections that can result in sterility, cancer, and death.

Sex among homosexual males typically includes: oral and anal sex; rimming (mouth-to-anus contact); fisting (insertion of the hand and arm into the rectum); golden showers (urination); insertion of objects such as bottles, flashlights, and even gerbils into the rectum; sadomasochism (beatings with whips, chains, etc.); and other practices. These various behaviors cause trauma to the rectum, contribute to the spread of AIDS; increase incidences of oral and anal cancer; and result in serious infections due to the ingestion of fecal matter.

One of the largest surveys ever conducted of homosexual sex practices was published by two homosexual researchers in 1979. In The Gay Report by Jay and Young, 37% of homosexuals interviewed indicated they had engaged in sadomasochistic activities; 23% had been involved in “water sports,” (urinating on the sex partner); 4% had been involved in defecation; 11% had been involved in giving enemas to their sex partners.

Dr. Gisela L.P. Macphail, a physician at the University of Calgary in Canada, described the serious health risks of homosexual behavior in a letter to the Calgary Board of Education in September, 1996. She is an epidemiologist and regularly treats AIDS patients. According to Dr. Macphail, “Any practice which facilitates direct or indirect oral-rectal contact will enable the spread of fecal and rectal microorganisms to the sexual partner. Thus anilingus (rimming), a common practice among homosexual men, allows direct spread of pathogens such as Giardia, Entamoeba histolytica, and Hepatitis A and of the typical STD organisms such as herpes simplex and gonorrhea.”

She warned the Calgary school district against promoting homosexual behavior among school children because of the serious health risks.

In August, 1984, just three years after AIDS was diagnosed as a public health threat to homosexuals, columnist Patrick Buchanan and researcher Dr. J. Gordon Muir published an in-depth look at the “Gay” lifestyle and the diseases associated with it in The American Spectator. Writing in “Gay Times and Gay Diseases,” the authors described a series of serious diseases comprising the “Gay Bowel Syndrome.”

According to Buchanan and Muir, San Francisco saw a four-to-ten-fold increase in gay bowel diseases beginning in 1977. As long ago as 1988, San Francisco had a venereal disease infection rate 22 times the national average.

Anal Cancer— Dr. Stephen E. Goldstone, the medical director of GayHealth.com says he has found that 68% of HIV-positive and 45% of HIV-negative homosexual males have abnormal or precancerous anal cells. A 1987 study, “Sexual Practices, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and the Incidences of Anal Cancer” in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that “homosexual behavior in men increases the risk of anal cancer: 21 of the 57 men with anal cancer (37%) reported that they were homosexual or bisexual, in contrast to only 1 in 64 controls.”

HIV from Oral Sex— In August, 2001, researchers at the University of California released the results of a preliminary study of the risk of getting HIV from oral sex. They claimed that homosexuals are at a zero to 2% risk of getting HIV from oral sex. But a study released earlier in 2001 indicated that oral sex is implicated in at least 8% of HIV infections. This earlier study was published in February by the CDC and the University of California at San Francisco.

HIV from Anal Intercourse— In the U.S., anal intercourse continues to be the primary transmission route of HIV infection for homosexuals. The CDC says there are 40,000 new infections each year and the rate of infection is climbing because many younger homosexuals are engaging in risky behaviors. Many have become complacent about the epidemic because of new drugs that control the progression of the disease. As a result, homosexuals are staying alive longer and infecting more individuals. As of 1998, 54% of all HIV infections were homosexuals. An estimated 1 million Americans have been infected with HIV since it was first discovered in the early 1980s. Worldwide, 21 million people have died; 450,000 Americans have died so far from HIV-related diseases.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases— A 1999 study published in the American Journal of Public Health indicated that homosexuals are five times as likely to have Hepatitis B as their heterosexual counterparts. A 1999 study in Sexually Transmitted Diseases indicated that 25% of homosexuals have rectal Gonorrhea and Gonorrhea of the throat is prevalent because of oral sex practices. The book,

The Ins and Outs of Gay Sex: A Medical Handbook for Men states that more than 50% of homosexual males have the Human Papilloma Virus. Homosexuals are acquiring Syphilis in record numbers. The CDC released two reports on Syphilis in February, 2001. One report said that Syphilis rates had declined by 22% in the U.S. since 1997. The second indicated that Syphilis rates among homosexuals in Southern California had risen from 26% to 51% in one year. The report also noted that in Southern California alone, 60% of Syphilis-infected homosexuals were also HIV positive.

Tuberculosis— Homosexuals are at high risk for spreading Tuberculosis. In June-August 1998, the Baltimore Health Department tracked the spread of TB by four black transgendered homosexual prostitutes. They had infected 22 others with TB through their sexual activities. TB infection was also spread from Baltimore to New York City.

HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOR IS UNSAFE AND SHOULD NOT BE PROMOTED AS A HEALTHFUL OR HARMLESS LIFESTYLE!

Dr. Diggs notes, “A compassionate response to requests for social approval and recognition of GLB [gay, lesbian, bisexual] relationships is not to assure gays and lesbians that homosexual relationships are just like heterosexual ones, but to point out the health risks of gay sex and promiscuity. Approving same-sex relationships is detrimental to employers, employees, and society in general.”

Homosexual sex leads to serious venereal diseases, anal and oral cancer, and death from HIV infection. This behavior must be discouraged—not promoted as an alternative lifestyle. HOMOSEXUAL SEX KILLS.

Did you read on FR the other day about the Red Cross being pressured by these people to stop DISCRIMINATING against gays in their questionaires about MSM? (males sex w/another male) The question is finally answered, these people are a threat to the wider community. If the Red Cross caves, Dear God, think what will then happen

If anyone's pressuring the Red Cross, they're barking up the wrong tree; the FDA requires them to ask the question... ("Are you a man who has had sex with a man, even once, after 1977")

The restriction will be lessened eventually, no doubt in my mind. Who can know the consequences? All donations are tested (and yes I know the tests aren't effective until 3 months after contracting the virus). Out of 12 million yearly donations, only 10 or so infected units slip through; somehow I doubt a simple yes or no question is the cause of that suprisingly happy statistic.

I would suggest that promiscious sex kills. Magic Johnson was famous for promiscuity, but was supposedly not homosexual.

One reason why homosexual sex kills is because male homosexuals have an average of 1000 different sex partners a year. Many have more, many more. The average livespan for homosexuals is 37. The average lifespan for homosexuals who are not infected with HIV is 42. As male homosexuals get older, they can be less selective, because as they get older and uglier, they get the leavings. Judgement is not a big part of that life.

On the other hand, homosexual females, have far fewer sex partners, and have far lower disease rates. That is less to do with geometry and biology, and more to do with psychology. Homosexual women are largely honest, loyal plain-Janes. As such, they are much less promiscuous than homosexual men. The very few homosexual or heterosexual women who are rampantly promiscious have similar disease rates as their male counterparts.

I don't care for homosexual sex, certainly not for myself, nor for my children. Since I am over 50, I don't have the same desires for frequent sex that I had when I was in my 20s and safely married. What a relief it is growing older.

I fear even more than the dangers of promiscuity, a government which would demand enough power, authority, and insight into privacy to control who has what kind of sexual relations.

One reason why homosexual sex kills is because male homosexuals have an average of 1000 different sex partners a year. Many have more, many more.

An average? Why don't these Olympian supermen control us all? Oh right, they already do :)

It puzzles me somewhat when the societal health risk argument due to homosexual promiscuity is advanced, yet simultaneously civil unions/marriage, which one would expect to reduce promiscuity, is advocated against.

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